The Cow Opening
Two pawns, four knight moves, the same six moves every game and against everything - and you can play it with either colour. It began as a joke. It is also, quietly, playable.
Last updated
- First moves
- 1. e3 e5 2. d3 d5 3. Ne2
- ECO
- A00
- Best for
- Either side
- Style
- Tricky
- Theory
- Light
- Level
- Beginner
The Cow is a six-move setup that ignores everything the opponent does: pawns to e3 and d3, both knights out to e2 and d2, and then the same two knights out again to g3 and b3. The name comes from the shape - two pawns in the middle, two knights sticking up like horns.
It is a joke that turns out to work. Every piece has a square, nothing can be attacked, both bishops are free, and the pawns on d3 and e3 are ready to advance the moment the setup is finished. What it costs is time - and time is exactly what your opponent will not know how to use against a position they have never seen.
The main line: building the Cow
The Cow, built from the start against a normal classical setup. Step through all eleven moves and watch the knights go out, back and out again.
Now build it yourself.
You are White. Build the Cow: two pawns, both knights to the second rank, then both knights out to the wings.
The Cow as Black
The setup works with either colour, and that is genuinely unusual - most openings only exist for one side. Against 1.e4, the same six moves go in mirrored.
You are Black now. White has played 1.e4. Build exactly the same shape, one rank lower: pawns, knights to the second rank, knights out.
The break that makes it work
The setup is only half the opening. Without a central break, those three extra tempi eventually count against you - so once the shape is finished, push.
The Cow is built. Now watch what it was built for.
The plans, for both sides
Playing the Cow. Build the shape, castle, and then break with e4 or d4 - whichever one your opponent has left weaker. The knights on b3 and g3 are not decorative: b3 covers c5 and d4 and supports a queenside expansion with a4-a5, and g3 covers e4, f5 and h5 and supports the f4 push. Do not spend twenty moves shuffling - the setup is a starting position, not a plan.
Playing against the Cow. Take the centre, develop faster, and castle - then open the position while your opponent's knights are still standing on the second rank. The Cow gives away three tempi; the way to punish that is to use them, not to admire them. What does not work is trying to refute it by force: there is nothing to attack, no weakness to hit and no gambit to accept.
The concepts this opening leans on are the plain ones. It is a lesson in what the knight actually controls from different squares, in how the pieces relate to the pawns in front of them, and in castling early because nothing in the position is doing it for you.
If you like a setup you can play against everything but want one that is also objectively good, the London System is the same idea taken seriously. If you like the flank approach, that is the English Opening.
Try it
Move one. Play a first move of the Cow.
The Cow is on this page because it is real: thousands of club games a month start with these six moves, and none of the players had to memorise a single line to get there. It is not the strongest opening you can play. It might be the easiest one to start with - and once the position is on the board, the lessons teach the part that actually decides the game.
Common questions
- What is the Cow Opening?
- A six-move setup rather than a variation: pawns to e3 and d3, knights to e2 and d2, then the same knights out again to g3 and b3. It is called the Cow because of the picture it makes - two pawns in the middle for the udder and two knights sticking up for the horns. It was popularised by WFM Anna Cramling and it can be played with either colour.
- Is the Cow Opening actually good?
- It is playable and it is not good. Engines rate the resulting positions as roughly balanced but slightly worse for the player who spends six moves not touching the centre. What it genuinely offers is that there is nothing to memorise and your opponent has never prepared for it - which at club level is worth more than half a pawn.
- What are the Cow's moves?
- As White: 1.e3, 2.d3, 3.Ne2, 4.Nd2, 5.Ng3 and 6.Nb3, in almost any order and against almost anything. As Black, the mirror: ...e6, ...d6, ...Ne7, ...Nd7, ...Ng6 and ...Nb6. That is the whole opening - the knights go out, come back to the second rank and then out again to the wings.
- Why do the knights go to e2 and d2 first?
- So they can reach g3 and b3 without blocking the pawns on e3 and d3. It looks like wasted time and partly it is - but knights on g3 and b3 both cover the centre from the side, keep every pawn free to advance, and leave both bishops with open diagonals. The cost is three tempi; the return is a position where nothing can go wrong early.
- How do I break out of the Cow?
- With e4 or d4, once the pieces are all out. The setup is only half an opening: if you never play a central break, the extra tempi your opponent spent on real development eventually tell. Build the shape, castle, and then push in the centre - the position is designed to make that break safe.
- Who invented the Cow Opening?
- It is a modern internet creation, popularised by WFM Anna Cramling, whose videos playing it against strong opponents put the name into common use. There is no classical source for it and no ECO chapter of its own - it lives under A00, the code for irregular openings, along with every other first move nobody had bothered to name.
Ideas this opening runs on:
Out of book in your own game?
Next Chess Move →Sources
